Ice fishing is something that many people want to try. But what equipment is needed? The basics include a bucket, some line and hooks and an auger. However, most ice fisherman want all the stuff they can get, and a sled to haul it all on. Walleye and perch are often caught through the ice, but bass, catfish, crappie and bream also bite when their world is frozen over. Ice fishing is made appealing to a broad sector of the fishing world through fisherman TV shows showing big fish being pulled through holes that look too small.
Many areas offer ice fishing opportunities for perch, sunfish, walleye, crappie, whitefish, and trout, as potential quests. It depends on what is in season and where. Indeed, fish, when caught from the frigid ice cold water, are at the year's best, with the flesh firm and flaky. It is during the winter that most ardent anglers regard fish as the best tasting, not having the muddy flavor from waters which are quite warm during summer months.
An ice fisherman may have to drill ten to fifteen holes, fishing each hole about fifteen minutes, before finally hitting a good fishing area. Once the fish are found, you obviously stay there. If a number of holes are drilled, the ice fisherman can return to any of them, retrying some of the holes a bit later. Fish may have moved in to the hole area or the act of boring the hole may spook the fish away. Retrying a previously drilled hole may be what's needed to locate fish, especially if other anglers in the same area are catching fish.
There are a variety of types of equipment that are used for ice fishing. Generally either stationary lines or jigging lines are used. The simplest form of stationary line is the set-line. A two to three foot slender willow or dogwood branch is anchored in the frozen slush so that the smaller tip is centered over the hole. After attaching a small elastic to your line by means of a couple of loops, it will be hung near the tip of your branch or twig. A minnow is then suspended under a sinker about one to five feet off bottom. If a fish hits, the elastic cushions the strike and pops off the branch. After the fish is landed, the elastic will hold the bait at exactly the previous depth. Floats can also be used to hold a minnow off bottom. Some fisherman like to keep their bait moving all the time (“jigging”)—gently allowing their bait to go right to the bottom, and allowing it to stay there for several minutes. After several minutes, lines are ‘triggered’, then after a few minutes, if nothing is happening, lines are raised up to a new depth, about four feet higher and the process is repeated until the bait is right up to and nearly into the hole. Trying this whole procedure a couple of times in a given location provides a proper depth to catch fish. Once success strikes, returning the bait to the same depth will continue the success—as this is where the fish are. They often ‘suspend’ at a given depth, and may not be above, or below this depth. Fish often show an orientation to the bottom. In general, speckled trout are found in 5 to 15 feet of water, walleye and pike in 5 to 30 feet and lake trout and whitefish in 30 to 80 feet. A sonar unit can be an important piece of ice fishing equipment. Moreover, good locations will produce fish, year after year. Purchasing a portable G.P.S. will allow the coordinates to be saved for future use.
Tip-ups provide the opportunity to move the bait as well as detecting a strike. Commercial tip-ups usually have a small reel to hold the line and a flag mechanism to indicate the presence of a fish. Most ice fishermen use line in the range of 8 to 14 pound test. Since the ice hole can be abrasive, it makes sense to use line of approximately two pounds greater strength than you would use in warm water conditions. A problem arises with using thicker line as it becomes more visible to the fish in the clearer, non-muddy waters and diminishes the catch. The instant device is most favorably designed to protect micro fishing line as light as one or tow pound test.
To alleviate this problem, and others which will become apparent from the disclosure which follows, the present invention conveniently relates to a novel ice fishing device for protecting a fishing line from being abraded by a peripheral edge of an ice hole. Ice fishermen encounter a problem with line wear and breakage caused by dragging the fishing line across sharp edges of the ice as the fish pulls the line under the ice. This problem is particularly acute while fighting relatively large game fish. Thus, a length of the protective tube is selected that extends some distance below the bottom of the ice layer to provide a guard for protecting the line from the sharp edges of the ice. In this regard, the tube is preferably made of variable length to fit varying ice conditions and eliminate the need to cut the tube to a desired length.
According to one embodiment, an ice fishing line anti-abrasion system is provided for protecting an ice fishing line from abrasion by an ice hole. The device comprises an upper annular ring and a lower annular ring, both annular rings being interconnected to each other and to a pole connector, and an extendable elongated tube.
Each annular ring has a hole for receiving the ice fishing line. The tube has a top end and a bottom end. The tube has a means for floatation disposed on an exterior surface thereof. The tube may comprise two elongated half tubes, each with semicircular cross-section, and fastened together on one side with at least one longitudinal hinge and on the other side with a quick release locking mechanism. The tube has a biasing means to open the other side when the quick release locking mechanism is actuated. Each of the half tubes has a half annular recess proximate the top end and a half annular recess proximate the bottom end. Each annular recess proximate the top end being adapted for receiving the upper annular ring, and each annular recess proximate the bottom end being adapted for receiving the lower annular ring.
Thus, the ice fishing line can be threaded through the upper annular ring and the lower annular ring, the upper annular ring and the lower annular ring can be disposed in one of the half annular recesses proximate the top end and the half annular recesses proximate the bottom end. The two elongated half tubes can be closed together and secured with the quick release locking mechanism. The closed extendable elongated tube can be inserted into the ice hole and floated in the water in the ice hole and the fishing line can be raised and lowered as needed to facilitate fishing activity. The quick release locking mechanism can be actuated to open the tube, whereupon the annular rings and the fishing line can be removed from the tube upon a fish strike. Supplementally, a pole connector, in contact with a fishing pole, can be employed which is flexibly attached to the annular rings. Pulling up on the fishing pole can engage the tube that is connected to the annular rings and extract the entire ice fishing device for protecting a fishing line from the water upon a fish strike.